Landscape of Virginia

This painting is of the school where I work on the weekdays. It features a program to help special need students to move smoothly from the public school atmosphere into the work a day world we live in. It is an oil painting, and it is done from the perspective from where I stand directing the buses and cars in and out of our parking lot of Post High. Post High is part of Albemarle High School although it is located a few miles away from that high school. As an artist I am not unlike a lot of authors in that I am reflecting on my past and what I know well. I know this scene well because I stand their so much every morning and every evening as the school closes. In as much that I see it so much I have a good recall of it. I did this painting from my home miles away. I used my memory to pickout the content and details of the painting. The students who study here are 18 to 22 years old and I am showing them streaming out of the building at the end of the day. Some will s

My drawing dealing with the carnival of life.

Life can be a carnival sometimes...the people we see sometime seem to come right out of a circus tent on their way to the concession stand getting some ice cream between acts. Such as scene seems to play out whenever I am at the grocery store heading in for my weekly purchase of food items. I don't ask questions, I don't bother to stop someone and ask them "...and what country are you from?" or "why do you look like someone who I wouldn't ever see anywhere else?" It's a real unique group I run into at the doorway at my local groceryshop and I don't know why. Maybe its simply a sign of being in a global village and I'm just starting to catch on to that fact. I am welcoming though, the broader and varied the population the more diverse our knowledge and skill-level is as a nation and people. Ok I'll get off my bandbox..so there you have it...Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I'm happy for it all...all of all is good with me!

Its a wonderful thing that we have such a variety of people at the local grocery store when I am shopping there in the evening. It's a reflection that with so many new countries bringing there people to our shores our nation is benefiting and changing because of it. I see so many different nationalities represented simply at the local grocerstore when I go to buy my weekly foods. I feel I am missing out on this unique experience because I don't have the nerve to stop one or two of these guys and ask them "where are you from?" or "...do you find this kind of store meets your needs?" I guess I don't do that simply from not wanting to be a pest or thought of as "...that weird guy who asks strangers questions" so I don't dare do so. But seeing how these folks are from all over the world kind of has me reflecting on our founder Thomas Jefferson who wanted to bring people from all over the world to his University for a global village and

This is the painting I worked up three weekends ago on Oct 19th and 20th of this year. I came from an opening of the properties of the Miller School to anyone who might wish to paint them and their views. I went up on a Saturday morning where the lite breakfast was provided and registration took place then off I went to the back fields of the school to paint. The painting took most of the late morning and the early afternoon until about four pm before I called it a day with my painting about three fourths done. It showed promise but I knew the next day would bring about a different look to it since the sun was no doubt be different. The first days efforts came about on an overcast day with a grey luminescent day with all the colors on the land being dull and rather dark. I knew the next day the sky would be clear and the colors much different. I wasn't disappointed. The next day I worked out the image of the barn and the open fields nearer to me and I left the mount

Working out in the back fields of the Crozet private school called "The Miller School" was just right today, the weather was right, the clarity of the sky was good and it was a beautiful view from it. I set up on Saturday and painted for a few hours without reaching an ending point, but then I came back the day after. The work went well today and within a couple of hours I had a finished painting. The work ended up being a nice painting but the way I set it up wasn't so good, due to the design I used putting the barn in the lower corner. The barn sinks off the bottom edge pulling the viewers eye down and off the canvas surface. With the barn being such a highlight of the painting it can't be avoided so it's a sticky placement that makes this painting fail. I worked hard and well on it but I aught to have stopped in the very beginning and placed the drawing of the barn exactly right. I should have taken a better look at just where that barn is on the

My Opening at the Rockfish Valley Community Arts Center was good for me and I was complimented on the quality of my art on its walls so it was a success. I had about twenty dedicated fans that made the trek in a wet rainy cold and dark evening to the Opening. I had ruffly twenty one paintings on it's walls. They were all very large paintings and the venue was just right for those sized paintings. I would have photos but I felt I was their to enjoy myself and not to record it with a camera around my neck. A friend who was working for the local paper came by late and took a few snaps that might appear on Monday I think he said but I was very happy with speaking to him and the many other friends who showed up. They told me my jaw aught to be very tired when the event was over. It wasn't. I could have greeted many more fans. I am more than happy to say there were many who I came that I was able to invite from casual meetings over the previous few weeks. It was

A gang symbol this isn't...it's a new item I saw shown at the NA world convention and I liked it. It sort of puts NA into a human perspective with the use of human hands creating the square within the circle which is our geometric symbol. Only this can be done by anyone in any situation as a symbol for our Recovery from our addiction to drugs. And I have been wondering how I can pay a proper tribute to NA for all that it's done for me and to do so with my images and artwork. It's a real challenge because one (an artist) can't use the NA square within a circle because its got a copywrite on it and one can't put an image of any recognizable person in because of our anonymity so it's tough. But here one can put people in it without giving away just who they are with a set of hands and so far this symbol of thumbs meeting the pinky finger are not copywrited I believe...at least so far they aren't, but wait until some lawyers get into the mix..so here

I have done much to keep my iron in the fire of art. I try my best to do something artistic at least once a day, whether its a drawing or painting or simply marketing my work but something to keep me in the game, something to keep me wet and surrounded by my love of the craft. This drawing is one way I keep at it. It's a simple study. A simple line drawing but in doing it I am keeping my hand-eye coordination together and sharp. Some crazy people think I have a camera in my head or that I have a measuring ruler in my head, can you believe the crazy things people who are suppose to be educated ...can you believe what they think is going on? Quite a wild ride to be sure, but I'm still on that bronco after all these years, I'm in it till the end no matter what. This piece is simply a study of looking at the image, drawing that image while looking at it and not looking at the paper I am drawing on. But do people believe that, I don't think there degree is worth ve

Attending the World Convention was an interesting study in character, character expressed by our various and unique facial structure as it shows up in our looks. I sat down in a hallway chair for a while and took out my drawing book then got to work. As people passed a few took the time to sit across the hallway in a comfortable bench. And other simply stood with friends and conversed for a short time, as they took these rests I got to work. Here I collected a good number of character studies of these guys and gals during there stays in the hallway. I spent the good part of an hour or so working on these drawings. I don't feel it compromises these guys anonymity because my replication of an exact likeness just can't be trusted so there ya go. My artistic license is at work in my art workbook, my pen does it all and does it well enough to be convincing that maybe just maybe you might have seen a guy or gal who looks just like one of these people in my drawings, well

I was gifted with a ticket on the train and also a way into the 35th World Convention of NA held in downtown Philadelphia this past weekend. What a blowout it was, some of the very best of speakers also with some of the best commonsense shared on the world wide stage. There were people from all over the world on stage sharing with we who we Blessed enough to be in a the audience. People from Russia: a hundred visiting young men and women anxious to bring back literature so they could free there friends from addiction and start NA in mother Russia. People from Africa sharing on Skype to 18,000 addicts in the audience. Wow! I'm glad I can say I too am in Recovery today, Just for Today!

Once a past woman friend who remains very dear to me answered a question I had for her by simply picking a flower and holding it up to me. Certainly she needed not to say anything for yes that was a good answer to my query of "What is your favorite type of art?" But yet it avoided saying anything specific to my question...yet I did get it..God's art is certainly far beyond anything mankind could ever come up with, yet some computer-graphics in various sci-fi films do put in the wonder in 'I wonder how they do that', yet the vastness of God's work and interplay that our environment has is certainly beyond our ability to conceive and I to stand in awe of it all whenever I look out my window. Just recently I paused to watch some group of butterflies and I simply sat down with my camera and witnessed some of that vastness I was writing about a second ago...so here another of those photos I took of them. Although I continue to work in the field of art I m

I took a trip down the road to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond today and I was somewhat dissappointed. The featured show was done with an art collection from someone who lived in NYC during the hayday of the Post Modern Expressionist. There were many of whom I had never heard of before and I thought the work they did show was really lacking merit. Simple color lines on paper does rate a museum of fine arts show in my opinion. There was one etching which was very simple yet not very accomplished in it's figure drawing, but who's complaining it was a free exhibit. The painting that drew me to take the trip seemed to have promise of some of those large color fields that those NYC modernist seemed to fall back on like the artist Joesph Albers or Hans Hoffmann but that piece stood alone. There were no large modernist works to see afterall and the painting being advertized was but four inches square if that. I can't say I wouldn't have made the trip be

This painting is a winner for me and how I view my art. I often get the comments that my color range is bright, well I want it to be this way. My colors in this streetscape are simply a heightened color range from what I was looking at in Scottsville. The buildings in the painting are similiar to those I was looking at but yet I took some liberties in depicting them as a narrow bunch and certainly a lot more colorful than what I was looking at across Main Street. I do look at what I am painting but not all that much to say I was working directly off of life, it was more that I was working "from life" and changing it. I paint with enjoyment and I think that is of utmost importance if I am to continue in this endevor. This particular painting is rather on the large size being that it's 30"x 44" in it's canvas size. The reason I like it is because I had plenty of room to investigate my subject of buildings. While doing so my composition came togethe

I love living here in the countryside of Central Virginia, its divine at times like this one where I spotted butterflies swarming around my backyard. There were seventeen Monarchs and a few smaller ones flying on a bush. Truly a beautiful site to behold. I grabbed my camera and simply sat among them for a while and they seem to not mind me being their so I snapped a few photographs and then moved on. I was glad to see so many Monarchs since there was that huge die-off of them in Mexico that we all read about, they winter down their from what I've read and they seemed to have gotten caught in a deep freeze while wintering in that migration spot. Along with the butterflies where a good number of bees that were making use of the pollen provided by this thistle shrub and feeding on the magenta blooms, it was a real pleasure to witness this morning and actually for the past week or so.

A new look at the sleepy little colonial port of Scottsville on the James is what I've been interested in this summer. I've take a few different approaches to it. My first was a small painting just discovering what was out their, then I painted a store front, then a particular store and now this week I was working on the group of downtown buildings in a 'streetscape' painting. The latest one turned out to be kind of a 'flat color study' where I really was looking at the geometery of those particular buildings on the downtown strip of little old Scottsville. I actually was rather far away from my subjects when I set up my paintbox and water. I could actually hardly see them. I guess I need a little more displine in my drawing so I get it all 'in' the painting itself..oh well..live and learn and live to come back another day and try it again. I did stop at one point and walk down the street to actually see what made up those doorways under th

I took a friend to the University Hospital this morning because during his small endoscopy he had to go under for a while so I had to drive. They just don't let people behind the wheel after taking one of their 'cocktails' so I took him in this morning. It went just fine but while waiting in the Hospital lobby I took out my drawing book and found some subjects for my pen and inks. This one in particular was one I could put a lot of meaning into, a mother and daughter no doubt awaiting word from their loved one as to his fate or results. This was my thought on what I took to draw. Both lay together for a while, not very long but yet long enough for me to get them done in ink. I didn't ask them any questions nor do I think they knew what I was doing just across the hallway from them. To my knowledge they must have thought I was listening to the piano playing happening beside us but all the time I was focused on them and their absolute serenity in their pose. A

Looking where I didn't want to go to paint I ended up working on a scene with the thought that "one who is a painter can make a good canvas out of anything" meaning to me that a good painter can perform well under any circumstances. So I went to Crozet, Va. and worked on a canvas that was to me a real chore. I set up behind a train station on the otherside of the tracks looking downward on a streetscene that had some buildings and a mountain scene behind it all. All this in a very small area of sight, one would unusually simply move on to some other view, but not me. I felt like seeing how well this idea that a good painter can make something look well despite the visual problems that lay within the context of the canvas. For me it was a labor of 'let's do it anyway no matter how I feel' and so it went for a few hours on a sunny day early in the week. The sun had come out and there was a short break in all the rain we've been subjected to so I cou

The finished painting is always the very best and well worth the wait to see. This was done in three sessions on the street in the hot sun in Scottsville on the James River in southern Albemarle County this past week. The three sessions where about two and a half hours each, one lasting over three hours in it's time on the streetside. I decided simply to work only onsite. That strategy worked well. I only touched up a few miscues at home after the last session otherwise it was totally a work done 'plein air'. The building is a large one on the main corner of this river community. It was originally a drugstore but now it's been divided up into three smaller shops which vary depending on how business is and who can handle sales in an otherwise deserted town. While I was their I saw very few people walking on the city streets but the few that did seemed very interested in just what I was doing painting on the sidewalk. I talked to the few that bothered

I've been working in downtown Scottsville which is a city that was founding in the mid 1700's as a port on the James River. It has it's hayday back in the mid 1800's as a place where people could gather goods. This particular painting is done of a promimate building in this town, it stands tall on it's Main Street next to the James River Inn and across from the Exxon (which doesn't date back much at all) the artwork isn't finished but I thought I would show it anyway since I've worked on it for the past two days. I can say that I've been true to it since I haven't painted on it unless I was looking directly at the building in Scottsville. No touching up at home for me. It's a keeper though, and I plan to head back this coming Friday (in a couple of days) to see where it will take me then as far as developement towards completion.

The very active intersection of Rt 6 w Rt 20 was the subject of my interest today. I set up around noon and worked with a few breaks from the sun for four hours. I felt as if I had gott'n off to a bad start but as I worked on this canvas I saw where it developed rather nicely into an unorthodox painting composi tion but I felt it worked. It worked well and so I left it alone and kept developing it into the canvas you see. I began with the buildings setting too far down past the midpoint of the latitude. I simply kept going but I almost just rubbed it all out to begin again. As I was taught and are many art students, to not begin unless one is totally confident of a good start to there canvas. One cannot build well unless one has a good foundation upon with to set his or her building, and this canvas was questionable at best when I got started. What I did was simply try something questionable and see what I could do with it. I actually felt some sense of being upset

There are places both on the map and sort of forgotten about and off the map of frequent travelers. The town of Esmont is one such place, it's just off a main east/west highway in Central Virginia. It had it's hayday from what I've learned mostly during the time of the roaring Twenty's and such...I think most of these place benefited mostly from the mining going on in the nearby town of Schulyer. Now the mining is limited and the town of Esmont has but a few families living in it's homes. The most noteworthy building I found to be the old bank building which was nice deep red from the brick used in it's construction. It's the only brick building in the town that I could find, but it's a nice three story building with some nice features to it with the name "Esmont Bank" still built into it's brickwork above the main doorway. With the sun out and mild temps I headed over to the quite town. I set up and painted for about th

The alternative to riding the bus is not waiting n driving or riding a bike to one's destination. For years I couldn't even afford the price of a bicycle so I mostly either walked or rode the bus. Because in those days the bus only came once an hour I often would stand for a few minutes at the bus stop until I lost my patience and I'd start walking across town knowing that not matter where I was going it most likely wouldn't take more than twenty minutes to get their. The city wasn't all the extensive back then and the buses where not so quick at getting around to picking us up. And so when the time came that I was able to put away enough pennies to purchase a bike I bought a mountain bike for this town is full of hills. It was only then that I could go anywhere I wanted (or so it seemed) on a mere whim, I bike with the help of a smart fella who kept me abreast of my bicycle's condition. Bikes need to be tended to because they wear down as most everythin

The summer is coming upon my horizon in a quid pro quo manner one where I need to get to work soon just to work on something. It's been too too long since I painted and I feel it. I delve into my drawing notebook when I have a spare moment and truly it's rewarding and fun but there is nothing nearly similar to picking up the brush and palette. Soon I promise you soon it will come about, just not today. I have sat myself on a park bench and drawn though and this is one of my resulting drawings of a woman awaiting her city transit homeward for the day. I found her an interesting subject and she I think noticed me drawing and she seem to sit perfectly still for me so I could capture her in repose. She was enjoyable to work on. It wasn't that long ago when I was that one on the bench awaiting the bus. I remember it as a rather long wait too.

The grocery store can be a trip: whenever I go thesedays it's late at night. People dwell in it for a long time I am certain that some just never leave, they are simply perpetual shoppers. I on the other hand like to have it all set in paper or a list which I can read, find, cross off and then check out. Quicker, simpler the better it is for me. Last night I went in and low and behold the place was mine, not many people powerdriving their carts into mine, it was an open field...and it was fun. I loaded up and then headed out to the self-checkout. Then out to my car and a quick look at my receipt to see where I saved a penny or two, which always makes me smile a little. Pennywise and pound foolish I just might be...but I'm getting by with my life expenses all paid up. These shoppers in this drawing are of the type I see on an average day. Certainly I am lying because I make them up in my head, but I know that I have seen people like these guys but to a degre

"The world goes by and if you don't grab it by the horns so will your chances go by" as someone once said ( I just can't remember who exactly said such a thing but I liked it when I heard it thus remembered it) such it is with art. One must take the drive to create and go take it into one's day to day life. So I do. I occasionally bring along my sketchbook with me into the city, here I sat down for twenty minutes and sketched a couple of scenes across the street and simply "crocies" (forgive me if I misspell it) that took no time at all but when I got them home I was very thankful for having made them. They are notes on my daily life. They are short looks into my surroundings. I can take a moment to remember that when I draw. It stops me from my taking my life for granted because I stop and take a good look at what is making up my surroundings. In my notebook I draw showing the people, places and things that are all over the place but that I

Yesterday and for the next few days we are expecting to get a steady rainfall. I decided to not let it stop me from taking a few photos of the nice roses that have exploded in my front lawn. I am new here and I wasn't expecting them. Being a man of taste I am enjoying the sight of them each and every morning. I can't help but share them with you on this blogsite, what with all the bad news out their I feel like sharing a little of the beauty that I see in my life here in Central Va. It had rained as I mentioned and that put a nice covering of rain upon those roses, I think it helps them look fresh and a little brigher in the dim light of a grey morning sunlight.

I'm home sick today, a stomach bug that came from eating some nasty c rabmeat that was a little foul, but it tasted good going down so who's complaining. Except for the way I felt when I awoke today hasn't been all that bad. I took off from work cuz I wasn't sure I could handle what demands the job has feeling the way I did this morning. So this gives me an opportunity to post some of the pen and inks that I've been dealing with as I allow my mind to wonder during the evening hours. I simply play with my notebook open, and pen in hand this is where I go. True I do make a conscious effort to control the images but I still allow for myself to wonder within the confines of the scene I am working on. It's very relaxing. Its' a good way to end the day before turning in. I also have a few drawings I did of young students in a coffee shop nearby the U.Va. in Charlottesville, Va. Some of these guys are with 'dates' but never look up and sp

The air, sunlight, breeze and temperature were all in line for a wonderfully picture perfect day outside my home. The Miller School plein air invitational was up for the taking. I packed up and headed out for a scone and coffee before going to the backlot of the school's property, I had been to this place in the past fall of 2012 so I knew what I was facing. I had an idea of just where I wanted to go and how I wanted to attack the subject on canvas. The big question was whether my car would be able to handle navigating the pasture. So unperturbed by the thoughts of my car bottoming out in crossing the fenceline of the back property I packed up and made my way up through familiar roads. Although narrow I knew the way. I faced the open pasturea and successfully arrived at my set up spot. I got out my supplies and canvas and got right to work about nine thirty in the morning with the sun blazing over my left shoulder. A fellow artist, a french native who had taught lang

I try to keep my hand in the arts in as much as I try to do something artistic everyday, everyday something somehow must nourish my calling to be what I am: "an artist" so this is my attempt at quieting that need. It was done a few days ago in the evening sitting in my armchair dwelling on nothing in particular...but yet dwelling on what I enjoy which is the unknown relationships the characters I draw have with one another. I find out things about my life this way, its sort of a journey of self discovery when I pick up a pen and put it to the paper before me.

What the nice surrounding land does for a person often goes unmentioned but when one paints one can show others the beauty and enjoyment one feels for the surrounding landscape. All that said (in poetic terms I suppose) how does a person portray it to others is the question for an artist. I've decided to just go out and find spots that bring up my wonderment of the raw unique power of nothing more than trees and what man has done to live among them. Here is a painting of a simple road but to see how this road bends and twist to lay upon the land is stunning to me. It's almost like a carnival ride in it's scope of bending to the landscape. True I think I must have exaggerated it some but I've gone back to this place and I must say that if it is exaggerated it isn't done so by much. Here is where I can enjoy the flow of my paint. When the territory lends itself to depicting features unique unto this place such as a fingerprint lends itself only to that

Art takes time, and time takes devoting oneself to the task of creation of it, drawing prepares one for the making of a painting. Needless to say, I've been drawing lately. I did get out and paint today which was useful and rewarding. I finished a small canvas and it is drying as I write this post. But I have been spending time drawing inbetween canvas painting. It's a good thing to not be committed to a 'serious work' and just be free to explore one's own imagination which is what I do when drawing in a notebook. Its' a playful thing to draw and I try to get one done everyday when the paper is available and it is. The meaning of these drawings is entirely up to the viewer. Don't let this bother you, it's all for the fun of free association of our collective imagination.

I can't just hop outside and paint thesedays with this weather, I enjoy it but it's been just downright cold for a good while now during the days which prevents me from going outside to paint. It's not stopping me from building some new canvases because I plan to paint indoors then later on in the coming month I'm thinking of venturing outside to an area on an old country road between Keene, and Esmont Va. to paint some old fences and wooded areas. For today though we had this snow to deal with, not much to do except to pray for the power to stay on and so far it has and I've been very grateful for that fact. Tomorrow I will finish up those two new large canvases then read some and rest, cuz soon I will be headed back to work again once they've decided that the roads are passible again. I'm hoping that won't be too long in coming because we have to make up this time we miss during the summer days when it's hot and humid. If you know any

I've been working on this painting for a few weeks, it's right outside my back window but its' been somekind of effort and a half to get it done. Today I suffer with the leftovers of a short bout with the flue but I had enough energy to pick up my brush and get to work on this. These two trees are lumbering outside and dominate my backyard and view of the Rockfish River in so much as someone whom I repect said that "they had to be painted". Of coures I was resistant to the hilt but then I recanted once winter set in and I was needing something to paint without setting up outside, then the memory of what was suggested came to mind. I had the canvas prepared and ready to go. Since these tress are so large it took a big canvas to do the job and that is exactly what I had: the task became obvious..."do what one is told to do" and so I did. I put down some dropclothes and got to work. I've forgotten how long it took me but it was a longer

At this time, I can only work on days off from work (ironic isn't it?) which are becoming frequent with the threat of snow having our schools hit the panic button and closing for the day...that's when I can work and I do. I am currently working out my back window of the view of trees on the riverside. The trees are focused on this one pair of Sycamore trees on the riverbank with the river flowing behind it. The opposite shore runs upward with a varying display of foliage upward to the background of faraway mountains and high trees. It's a challenge that I am going to and am enjoying painting. I will be taking my time with it and so this statement comes about just to say "hold on" my caricatures are on hold and my landscapes from my new found country life are on the way....ya just gott'a wait a while.

This new painting is done in the plein air manner where one sets up his easel and paints outdoors and works from what one sees out in the wild. This road that I painted is one that is very enjoyable to drive on. I am somewhat new to this part of the countryside, I lived here about thirty five years ago and only recently moved back. So although it's a new place for me to live in it still has some place in my memory. Its just that they are very old memories for me. But all that aside, this road is particularly lovely in the winter when some of the leaveless trees allow one to see through the spaces that are usually blocked by the foliage. In this painting I focused upon the sunlight that shines inbetween the trucks and upon the ground and road. Plus the colors are so different in the winter out here, the color of wood seems to shine forth so well in this scene. I hope you enjoy it, it was fun to paint.

Painting can sometimes be a lot like making chocolate chip cookies in that the batter can be more satisfying than the finished product: and so are my paintings to some of my viewers. If I could only count the number of times I've heard people comment that they enjoyed my painting when I had just begun it (when I had painted the underpainting in brown monochromatic colors that is)meaning that I aught to have stopped back then. I feel like a small mouse then who ruined a nice cake of the house owner who is providing me a warm home. Point being, sometimes one can't provide what people are looking for in the artist quest for a finished painting. But an artist can record his progress of his creative act with photographic snapshots after each painting period. I did just that. I painted for eleven sessions and set up my camera and snapped away after each one. So here to satisfy those folks who like my beginnings much better than my endings...well I aim to please.